Of Seraphs and Symbols
by The Black and Green Jester
Summary: A strange girl with and even stranger past has lost her homeland and her people, all save for one who is like her brother. What exactly happened to their home? They set out to find answers, but little do they know they are being sought out as well.
1. Chapter 1

_Prologue:_ _The History_

Too many years have passed to be able to tell when it thrived, nevertheless, the great ruins

left behind were enough to prove its existence: the magnificent City of the symbologists. The name

of the great empire too was lost in time, yet its history was glorious enough to brave the countless

years, as was the memory of the unique race.

The City was built entirely of a strange rarity of marble, except for some places where the enormous trees were molded

with the structure of the buildings and towers. All adornments were made from the precious woods of the trees, silver

(which was a rather abundant ore in the area), and starlight-colored stones that could only be found there. The City was

beset by an large, deep, rich blue lake, whose waters were supplied by the spring it was made from and the immensely

pure rainwater that the empire was blessed with. It was almost always overcast and had only rare times of brilliant

sunshine, however, the slightly dimmed lighting only made the scene even more erethreal. The constant rainfall in the area

made the greenery surrounding and in the City extremely lush and picturesque. Fountains, ponds, waterfalls of all shapes

and sizes, and tiny tributaries ran throughout the City, going between and over all of the bui8ldings, towers, and

roadways.

The City was a paradise. How fitting it was that the people who inhabited it had the look of the seraphim. Each native of

the City was born with a pair of huge wings, each being as tall or maybe even taller that the person by the time they were

nearly adults. Whatever their hair color was, their wings shared the same color, and eye, wing, and hair color came in

countless colors. The eyes of the People were...striking, to put it plainly. It is said that one could be turned away from the

People almost as quickly as they were lured to them if they were showing dislike, for their eyes portrayed an unearthly

menace.

The empire and the looks of the People themselves would be enough to land them a great spot in the annals of history,

however, its true reason for remembrance, what gave the City its wisdom, power,...and mystery, was their astonishing

ability: symbology. The force of symbology was said to have been a gift to the People from the very first of the Ancients,

who were said to be the judiciaries of the Creator. The First took words from the Creator and made them into a brand new

tongue more descriptive than any other on earth and embedded it into the minds of the People in the form of symbols.

These thousands of symbols had great power in them and could not be used as a whole, therefore, the were broken into

three different groups: Symbols of Destruction, Symbols of Alteration, and Symbols of Transportation. The Trinity of Powers

controlled exactly what their name suggested, yet it was in many forms. For simple phenomena, the People summoned or

formed symbols inside their minds the projected out moonlight-blue symbols on, for, or around whatever it was that they

were casting. As for their greater castings, the People actually spoke the tongue given to them by the First. It was not

spoken as their official language, and if they taught the words to those that were not of their blood, they would not be

able to use it. Only when paired with constant exposure to symbology, extensive understanding of whatever words they

knew, and immense concentration could a foreigner be able to perform a phenomenon of low complexity.

There was also a Fourth, which was created by the rest of the Ancients. Jealously of the First caused the Lesser Ancients

to come together and create their own language. They took the language created by the First and imbedded even more

power into it, creating a book they dubbed The Delta Tome, however, this caused the symbols of the Tome to become

greatly unstable. The Lessers gave the Tome to the People, yet they could sense the dangerous power emanating from it.

The Tome was put under the control of the shamans, the class in charge of the heavenly matters of the City and its

People, that way no one could ever use it. Unfortunately, it failed to work.

The Tome's power was so great that it seeped out from the book and infused itself in all of the People. Now, whenever a

native was pushed to their limits and their bodies became their weakest, the Delta Symbols were unleashed. A native using

Delta Symbols became immensely violent and rash, and also became addicted to their Delta symbols. With wards set up by

other People and a thorough cleansing, a native could be restored, nevertheless this task was very difficult. As a result,

the shamans began to study the Tome, and, over time, they could use it without the side effects. All shamans who

undertook the Tome practices went through rigorous training and used all of their concentration to do so, resulting in only

thirteen shamans each generation who could effectively use Delta Symbols. However, this great power that only they could

use made them arrogant, and this arrogance made them crave respect and power. Thousands of years passed, then

finally a group of shamans pushed the limits, a decision that would ultimately end in the destruction of the wonderous City.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1:The Raid

"It's about time you got here, Lani."

The dark eyed woman who just entered the dimly lit room glared at a rather lazy looking man with long brown hair. He glanced out the window he was sitting by, avoiding Lani's unpleasant gaze.

"Well, excuse me if you decided to call a damn meeting at two in the morning!" she snapped.

Another young man with short black hair frowned and nodded.

"Yeah, this was pretty unexpected, Davven. Lani's got a point."

"And what's _yours_, Anek?," Davven replied with a touch of annoyance, not even turning from the window, "It must not be that bad. Reisa's not even complaining."

Anek turned to look at the small, blonde-haired woman behind him. He laughed shortly then shook his head.

"Maybe it's 'cause she's asleep."

Davven finally turned from the wide window and face them small group in the room.

"Well, wake her. You're all going to need to hear this as it's the reason you're all hear at such a late hour."

Lani leaned over and shook the sleeping Reisa's shoulder. She stirred slightly and looked up at Lani bleary eyed.

"...Huh? Whazgoinon?"

Anek and his dark-eyed companion pointed at the group's leader, who was leaning forward ready to make an announcement of some sort. Reisa rubbed one of her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Oh, so he's finally going to spill why he interrupted my sleep time?"

"Alright, I've just received some info on a what seems to be a rather promising raid," Davven said as if he had not even heard Reisa's remark, "And believe me, by the way my informer was acting, if things go the way we want them to...we could get away with never having to go on a raid for _the rest of our lives_.

Reisa was now sitting up very straight.

"You serious?", Anek asked, his eyes lighting up in anticipation. Raiding was a tough life. To never again have to deal with it would mean that they would all get out of this with enough money to last them their whole lives.

Lani frowned and retorted, "Oh, c'mon. Where could there possibly be a place well stocked like that? It would not only have to be extremely well guarded, but also completely untouched by any other raiders. Besides, what makes you think that other raiders haven't gotten a hold of this place first?"

Davven smirked mischievously. He was waiting for someone to bring this up.

"That's where things get interesting-"

"Oh, as if they haven't already?" Anek cut in sarcastically.

"Shut up and listen, will you?", the brown-haired young man snapped back, "Okay. The thing about his place, well, raiders haven't touched this place yet..._ever_."

"But that's impossible," Reisa cut in, shaking her head, "Raiders nowadays have reached even to the furthest ruins of the Olivier Rim...unless. No...you're not saying it's..."

"In the Airythien Woods, yeah. It sure is.", Davven nodded.

Anek raised an eyebrow and mused, "But there's nothing in there. Those woods go on for miles. We could be stuck wandering that places for days!

"Oh, but there is something in there, and I think you know what I'm talking about." Davven hinted. Now things were truly going to get interesing.

"_You can not be serious, Davven!"_, Lani snarled, "The City? Of all the places!"


End file.
